Change Management — Hourly Time Tracking System
Problem
When I began reviewing how designer time was tracked, the organization could only see total hours worked and a loose list of completed tasks. What we couldn’t see was far more critical:
How long designers spent on individual task types
Whether work was wall design vs. truss design
Time spent on quotes vs. production jobs
How much effort went into internal work such as meetings, training, and process overhead
Where designers were being slowed down by system gaps, unclear inputs, or rework
On top of that, time reporting was entirely manual. Designers were required to send the COO a summary of what they worked on and how many hours it took, but submissions came in different formats, levels of detail varied wildly, and key information was often missing. The result was incomplete data, low confidence in reporting, and no way to make informed operational decisions.
Objective
Create a simple, standardized, and designer-friendly time tracking system that would:
Capture time at the task level
Categorize work by design type, job type, and internal vs. external effort
Eliminate manual reporting
Provide clear, defensible data to leadership
Give designers a structured way to surface roadblocks and inefficiencies
Solution
I designed and implemented a dashboard-driven time tracking form that required only a few key inputs from each designer, while capturing significantly richer data behind the scenes.
Each time entry was structured to record:
Task category (e.g., wall design, truss design)
Job type (quote vs. production)
Time spent
Internal activities (meetings, training, admin)
Optional notes to flag process issues, missing inputs, or system friction
The form fed directly into a centralized dashboard that automatically generated reports—removing the need for designers to manually summarize or explain their work to leadership.
Implementation & Adoption
I rolled the system out with:
Team-wide training to explain the purpose and value
One-on-one sessions with each designer to ensure comfort and clarity
Clear emphasis on why this was in their best interest:
No more manual reporting
Better visibility into workload reality
Data-backed conversations with management
Adoption was immediate. Within one week, every designer on the team was fully using the system.
Results & Impact
The new system unlocked insights the organization had never had before:
Clear visibility into where designer time was actually going
Accurate breakdowns of production vs. quote effort
Quantifiable data on internal overhead
Identification of recurring process bottlenecks and system “glitches”
A structured channel for designers to communicate challenges without friction
For leadership, this shifted conversations from perception to evidence-based decision-making. For designers, it created transparency, reduced admin burden, and gave them a voice backed by data.
Key Takeaway
This project wasn’t about tracking hours—it was about revealing the reality of work. By turning fragmented, manual reporting into a standardized, automated system, I created operational clarity, improved trust between teams and leadership, and laid the foundation for smarter capacity planning and process improvement.
